Mother frustrated by Kings Island disallowing son with partial limbs from riding roller coasters

For those that were talking about a contraption they used to put on the Racer to let people ride with a disability, I saw it used once in 1996 when I worked at Kings Island on that ride. The best way I can describe it was that it was a flexible harness/vest that somehow buckled under the seat, went up over the rider's head and then secured behind their back somewhere on the coaster car. I wasn't the person who hooked it up (I believe it was the area manager) and it has been so long since then, that is about as specific as I can be on it.

Even though as a society we try and make things available to everyone, I believe there will always be some things that a person with a disability will be unable to partake in. It's unfortunate but just the way it is, in my opinion.

There was a case down in TX that recently ruled differently than the previous established cases. Here's a link: http://www.legalrollercoaster.com/2014/09/why-six-flags-loss-in-rec...a.html?m=1

We'll probably seeing a lot more of these cases after this ruling.

Why do they have to admit they made a mistake in order to change the policy? Why can't they just say, "We changed our policy this season" and then not say anything about why"? Seat belt lengths change, height requirements change, restraints change, trains change and nobody ever has to justify them.

Hell, if they really feel the need to justify it (which I think is stupid) just say, "We looked around at policy changes at other parks in light of recent events (maybe name drop SFoT here) and re-evaluated our own."

This discussion brings me to wonder why a harness can't be built for all coasters to allow people who are missing limbs to ride. It sounds like a brilliant idea to just secure a disabled rider into a harness and then belt the rider's harness into the seat.

Yeah, but think of how that would affect capacity....

I suspect, though I can not be sure of this, that part of the problem with something like this would be designing it to reliably fit all amputees on all roller coasters of all sizes with all different kinds of forces. Think of how many different harnesses there are for the large size swings or bungee jumps.